Doom metal is a subgenre of Heavy Metal that emerged in the late seventies/early eighties. It's often slow, dark, depressing and pessimistic, and is characterized by a thicker guitar sound than other genres of metal. The music and lyrics are usually meant to evoke a sense of dread, although more epic and "rocking" themes are far from uncommon.

A simpler description of doom metal: a genre consisting of metal bands that looked at Black Sabbath, thought "Hey, that's pretty doomy, but we can do better!", and subsequently took the doomy metal of Sabbath to its logical extreme. Hence, doom metal.

The genre technically started right at the beginning of metal, with the aforementioned Black Sabbath, who are near universally considered the first true metal band. Another classic metal band, Pentagram, was also a key part of doom metal, though the genre was not truly formed until a tiny bit later on, with several other influential bands including Saint Vitus, Pagan Altar, Trouble, and Witchfinder General. It should be noted that several of the early traditional doom bands, as well as more recent bands following in their footsteps, often lack certain stereotypes associated with the genre. Some of the bands have faster paced songs, and a few were quite upbeat in tone, while still retaining the Sabbath influence. Possibly, the most influential of the doom metal bands was Candlemass, who released their debut album Epicus Doomicus Metallicus in 1986. It was this album that brought doom metal to greater attention in metal circles, when it had been previously seen as more of a niche genre. Alongside the Black Sabbath track "Hand of Doom", It's also possibly where the name of the genre came from ("Doomicus Metallicus" = "Doom Metal"; "Hand of Doom" = "Doom Metal").
During the eighties, doom metal was a woefully overlooked and deeply underground subgenre, metal being dominated commercially by Hair Metal and in the less-underground-than-doom-metal underground by Thrash Metal. In fact, it's not at all impossible to find some fans who believe that doom metal is an entirely recent phenomenon.

At the beginning of the nineties, the band Cathedral released their debut album Forest of Equilibrium, which fused doom metal with more aesthetics from extreme metal, making doom slower and heavier. Cathedral themselves later moved onto a more uptempo, groove-oriented style, but their early material resulted in doom metal gaining more recognition. By now, there were a couple of doom metal subgenres: "epic doom", which fused traditional doom with operatic vocals and (often) Heavy Mithril; and "sludge metal", which fused doom with Hardcore Punk and in some cases southern rock, and started off in New Orleans. In the early-to-mid nineties, doom metal diversified, and quite a few new subgenres were created, including "stoner metal", "death/doom", "black doom", "funeral doom" and "drone doom". Around the time Nu Metal was mainstream, the stoner metal band Electric Wizard released Dopethrone, which is regarded as one of the seminal doom metal albums and one of the heaviest metal albums of all time, bringing to doom a new audience obsessed with heaviness in metal.

Another form of doom, known as "post-metal" or "atmospheric sludge metal", combined sludge metal with Post-Rock. Certain post-metal bands, such as Isis, Neurosis and Pelican, have gained recognition in the metal scene, but this success has been met with backlash from certain people, who refer to it as "hipster metal" (and, for some reason, lump them in with Mastodon, who are not a post-metal band despite taking influences from sludge metal). It is, however, debatable whether post-metal even qualifies as a doom metal subgenre (or even a metal subgenre at that), and most doom purists are likely to consider it as merely "heavy post-rock", claiming that these bands take very little influence from the doom style.

There's also Gothic Metal, a subgenre of metal that evolved from death/doom thanks to three British death/doom bands, Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Anathema, known as the "Peaceville Trio" due to all three bands being signed to Peaceville Records. Some gothic metal bands also count as doom, but overall, gothic metal is not a subgenre of doom, despite evolving from it.

A new wave of retro-doom metal (sometimes known as "occult rock") started to gain popularity in 2011 and has remained popular since, encompassing such bands as Jex Thoth and Ghost, with a lot of these bands not intending to play any form of doom at all. This recent and increasingly popular wave of metal- drawing influence from 70s rock, sludge, stoner, and traditional metal- is now the closest thing to mainstream attention doom metal has yet to receive. Due to their wider appeal, some of these bands have been accused of being "hipster".

Although doom is not well-known in the mainstream, it's had quite a history. Despite the fact that doom and doom related metal has led to the rise of such genres as Heavy Metal, Grunge to an extent, Sludge Metal, Gothic Metal, Stoner Rock, and others, doom metal itself has (for the most part) never truly broken into the mainstream and it remains overshadowed by genres such as Metalcore, Alternative Metal, and Death Metal. Many claim that the reason doom has been overlooked—save a few acts such as Alice in Chains and several of the more recent occult rock bands—is because of its speed, or lack thereof (most people attribute heavy metal with blinding speed, something doom metal avoids). In fact, many songs glorifying heavy metal, especially those from the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal-era, reinforce this notion that heavy metal can only be fast. Ironically, a lot of early and definitive doom albums were not very slow paced at all. Recently, doom metal has been showing itself to be an influence on newer eras of rock, particularly on the traditional metal revival scene and the retro-doom or "occult rock" movement. Following the success of Ghost, The Sword and Black Sabbath, doom finally began receiving more than just traces of mainstream attention, leading some to speculate that the genre may be becoming a new trend in metal.

In musical style, a lot of traditional doom bands aspire to sound like Black Sabbath, particularly the early Ozzy Osborne era- circa 1969-1973. This has been most accomplished by the aforementioned stoner doom bands mainly due to the psychedelic nature of Black Sabbath during that time. Riffs, especially box riffs and blues riffs, are also extremely prevalent throughout doom metal as another side-effect of being Black Sabbath inspired.
Despite being one of the many 'extreme metal' subgenres, doom metal is also one of the most diverse. While many doom bands and songs employ incredibly crushing guitars, apocalyptic attitudes, and demonic growled vocals, others might opt to sound like otherwise upbeat '70s rock with very gloomy lyrics. This is not including folk, industrial, avant-garde and electronic doom bands.

List of doom bands, categorised by subgenre:

Traditional Doom and Epic DoomTechnically they are different subgenres, however the distinction is frequently very hard to grasp, so they've been lumped in together (A basic guide: traditional doom = Saint Vitus, epic doom = Candlemass). This style is rooted in '70s rock and metal, and it becomes obvious in their presentation and sound; they sound as if punk never happened. For epic doom bands, some '80s metal, specifically the operatic vocals and gated drums, is mixed in. Shred-style leadwork is also present with some epic doom acts.

Note: Doom metal and stoner rock/metal are used interchangeably by the press, so don't be surprised if these bands are labeled 'stoner rock/metal' in some circles.

Abstrakt Algebra (bit of a Genre-Busting example that mixes this with progressive metal and power metal)

Bedemon (very obscure near-Ur-Example comprised of most of the members of Pentagram - Bobby Liebling was even a member on an on-off basis in the 1970s)

Stoner MetalStoner metal, also known as "stoner rock" and "desert rock", is essentially doom fused with Psychedelic Rock. It is characterised by often being bass-heavy and making much use of guitar/bass effects such as fuzz, phaser or flanger. The main stoner metal scene is in the Palm Desert. There is a difference between stoner metal and stoner rock (stoner rock is more groove-oriented and fully rooted in '70s psychedelia, stoner metal is slower and heavier and a tad more oriented towards hardcore punk ala sludge metal), but there's enough overlap that bands of both genres can be listed here.

Note: Stoner rock/metal and doom metal are used interchangeably by the press, so don't be surprised if these bands are labeled 'doom metal' in some circles.

Post-MetalAs described above, this is what happens when sludge metal is fused with post-rock. Also known as "atmospheric sludge metal". The term "post-metal" is sometimes (though less frequently) used as a much broader term for metal bands with post-rock tendencies, eg. Sunn O))), Agalloch and Wolves in the Throne Room. See also the Black Metal page for bands that fuse post-metal and Black Metal (listed under "Post-Black Metal and Blackened Shoegaze", although these are two distinct styles).

Drone Doom or Drone MetalA fusion of doom metal and drone music, also taking influence from ambient and minimalist music. Typically, the electric guitar is performed with a large amount of reverb or audio feedback, while vocals, if present, are usually growled or screamed; the more noise-influenced acts frequently include tape loops or harsh noise samples as well. Songs often lack beat or rhythm in the traditional sense and are typically very long. The genre was started by the band Earth, though the most well-known drone doom band is Sunn O))), who modeled themselves after Earth (their name is even a reference to Earth, as well as to the Sunn amplifier brand). This genre could be described as doom taken Up to Eleven; it's minimalistic and brutal, and extremely creepy.note Its polar opposite would be Dream Pop, which is musical Sweet Dreams Fuel.

Funeral DoomEvolving from death/doom (particularly due to the death/doom band Disembowelment), funeral doom can be described as "death/doom Up to Eleven". Taking some cues from dark ambient, it is played at a very slow tempo (even for doom), and places an emphasis on evoking a sense of emptiness and despair. Typically, electric guitars are heavily distorted and keyboards or synthesizers are used to create a "dreamlike" atmosphere. Vocals consist of mournful chants or growls and are often in the background. Needless to say, it's among the scariest and most depressing music ever created.

Until Death Overtakes Me (The guy behind this project has twelve others, variably related to Doom: Beyond Black Void, Fall Of The Grey-Winged One, Dreams Of Dying Stars etc and plays bass in In Somnis too.)

Black Doom or Blackened DoomDoom fused with Black Metal. Typically, vocals are in the form of high-pitched shrieks and guitars are played with much distortion, which is common in black metal. But the music is played at a slow tempo with a much 'thicker' guitar sound, which is common in doom metal. Lyrics often involve themes of nature, nihilism and depression, but the more sludge-leaning acts usually switch that out for hatred, self-loathing, and misanthropy. Often overlaps with Depressive/SuicidalBlack Metal.

Trope Maker: The actual creation of doom metal as a genre can be blamed on a few bands, including Saint Vitus, Candlemass, Trouble and Witchfinder General. Sludge, meanwhile, can generally be pinpointed to Black Flag (My War has been massively influential to the genre), Melvins, and Flipper.

Ur-Example: Black Sabbath, if you consider them part of the genre. Blue Cheer is an even earlier example, though it's debatable whether they're even a metal band. Flower Travellin' Band is another one, but they're closer to being an Ur-Example of stoner rather than doom.

Watch It Stoned: With doom metal being a subgenre of Black Sabbath worshippers, it's no surprise that a lot of them take a fuckload of drugs. Stoner metal is the "purest" form of this.

However, it should be noted that there are somedoombands you really shouldn't listen to while stoned. We mean it.

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